"Yeah." Lila nodded, seeing realization cross his face. "And I found the other one on my office door when I went in this morning.”
His entire face collapsed into a cringe. “Wait. Stop.” He needed a minute for his heart to catch up with his head, but after several long moments passed he knew it wasn’t going to happen.
“He says he didn't do it." She paused. "Well, he didn't exactly say he didn't do it but..."
"He did it, Lila." Jacks nostrils flared. "Of course he did it."
She was suddenly rocketed back to the cafe table with Tracy.
"And it's completely fucked up."
"Jack please..." Lila begged, seeing how out of control Jack was on the verge of getting. "Please, if you love me like you say... please let me handle this. You’re right, we do need to change our legacy, our dynamic. All of us. I want that just as much as you do but if you let your temper get the best of you and say something you regret then we might never get that chance…”
Jack looked off. He clearly wasn't trying to hear any of that, but allowed her to wrap her arms around him.
Lila stared up into his eyes desperately. "I'm handling it. You didn’t see how he reacted when I confronted him with this in the office. He’s hurting, Jack. If you say anything to him about it, any small chance the two of you have of fixing what's broken will be completely dead and gone. Please.”
He looked away from her, struggling terribly with the news she'd just blasted him with and her absurd expectation that he keep his mouth shut about it. Looking back into her eyes and recalling the day they'd spent together, the things she'd told him, he knew that he would never betray her, or do anything to make her unhappy. Even if it was something that caused him almost physical pain.
"All right," he said, gruffly.
Lila exhaled with relief. "Promise me."
"I promise, Lila."
"Will you stay with me tonight?" she asked. "I'm still a little shaken up."
"You have nothing to be afraid of," Jack said. "I'd never let anything happen to you."
---
Ashley opened the door to her bedroom and stopped short when she saw Chase sitting on the edge of her bed, leaning on his knees and staring down at the backpack between his feet, appearing deep in thought.
A smile lit up her face as she stepped through the door and closed it behind her. She removed her jacket and licked her lips. "Well this is a nice surprise--"
"Where are my keys?” he asked, staring down into his hands, which were clasped tight.
The smile fell from her face and she rolled her eyes, kicking off her heels.
"Well hello to you, too. Oh my day was great, how about yours?" She tried to smile but the halfhearted attempt fell from her lips when Chase looked up at her without a hint of amusement.
"Where are my keys, Ashley?" he asked, his voice booming but calm.
Ashley was finally in the present and, sensing the tone of the room, crossed her arms over her chest. "Chase, I have no idea what you're--"
"Where are my fucking keys?" Chase leapt from the bed and was face to face with Ashley in a second, fists clenched at his sides.
Ashley was so stunned by how quickly he'd moved that she'd barely had a chance to react, but she wasn't afraid. Her blue eyes met his head on, and she lifted her nose a little higher in the air for good measure. "Dude, on my grandmother's grave I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't have your fucking keys, okay?"
Chase pulled his head slightly away, but kept his body close. "They were in my bag last night during that party and now they’re gone."
"Rumor has it there are these really cool things called replacement keys... they make them everywhere. Even Wal-Mart, if you're brave enough to step foot in that shithole." Ashley shook her head. "Do you have a secret Lamborghini that I don't know about? Lexus? BMW? What the hell are a bunch of rich kids going to do with your keys? Break into your townhouse and steal a bunch of shit that their own parents already have ten of? I know you and your asshole brother think you're hot shit with your Mommy and Daddy's inheritance but around these parts you're small potatoes. Calm the fuck down." She shook her head and pushed passed him, pulling her shirt up over her head.
"I..." Chase didn't know why, but as he turned to Ashley and watched her get undressed he felt like he'd unfairly attacked her, "I'm sorry, I just..." He motioned to the closed door of her room. "Those keys are important to me... but I guess I did leave them downstairs with all those... fucking morons last night." He pushed a frustrated hand through his hair.
"Well yeah..." Ashley said, her eyes narrowing.
Chase jammed his eyes shut, still gripping his hair. "I'm sorry I attacked you I just..." He exhaled and opened his eyes wide. "I feel like I'm going fucking crazy." He didn't know when Ashley had changed into a swimsuit but as his eyes ran down her red-bikini clad body he was certainly appreciative.
"Look..." She began to slowly make her way up to him, "Keys can be replaced..."
He stood rigid as she wrapped her arms around his neck, but wasn’t in a big hurry to move.
"I, however…" Ashley's eyes widened. "Cannot." She smiled at the expression on his face and whispered. "You have no idea how hot you are do you?" Standing on her toes, Ashley placed a slow, soft, almost hesitant kiss on his lips. When he didn't immediately repel, she glowed. "You can stay here for as long as you want, okay?"
Chase let her run her nails gently through his hair, eyes fluttering shut at how good it felt.
"Thanks,” he grumbled.
Ashley took advantage of the moment and gave him another kiss, "I'm going down to the shore. Take your pants off and come with me. It'll make you feel better."
Chase gave into Ashley and before he knew it he was wearing nothing more than a pair of black boxers and a small, unsure smile.
If there was any better distraction in the world than Ashley, he had no idea what it was, but even in her tiny red bikini, Chase still found it impossible to focus. Someone had used Lila's key. She'd said they were in her door, so whoever took them only meant this as a one-time thing... or they'd made copies. The idea of someone having a copy of Lila's key sent a wave of protectiveness inside him into overdrive. One so strong that it made his vision a little blurry every time he thought about it.
He had to find out who took those keys.
---
A few days later, on Thursday evening, Jack was propped up on a pillow watching Lila sleep. He took in her delicate face, the soft peaks and curves that made her so wonderfully Lila. For nearly an hour he'd been watching her and waiting as her breathing became slower and longer, until he was sure she was in the deep throws of sleep.
He hadn’t been able to tell her that he planned on talking to Chase about everything tonight. He had spent the last few nights sleeping in Lila’s bed, mainly because he didn’t think he could trust himself around Chase. With every night that passed he became more and more angry when it became apparent that Lila would rather completely ignore what his brother had done than confront the situation.
Jack couldn’t ignore it any longer. Though she was good at hiding it, he could tell that she was perpetually on edge. She only made love to him under the private safety of her sheets and blankets, checked that her doors and windows were locked at least a dozen times before she could manage any form of sleep, and kept her formally open window blinds shut tight, even during the day. He’d be damned if he had to watch her paranoia for another night, so he planned to sit down with Chase and do something about it. But he had to wait until Lila had fallen asleep.
After watching her chest rise and fall for nearly an hour he finally climbed out of the bed as quietly as he could, and got dressed.
Jack would stop at nothing to get to the bottom of this.
Tonight.
---
Lila awoke to an empty apartment and, after checking room after room, she finally accepted that Jack was gone. And she knew exactly where he'd gone, to rip Chase a new one. She ran around her apartme
nt, throwing on anything she could find in sheer panic. If Jack and Chase got into it over this she was sure that their relationship would be beyond repair and that simply wasn't something she was prepared to face.
The green indicator light on her phone blinked and she snatched it up, continuing to get dressed while she listened to her voicemails.
The first one was from Tracy. "Hey, Lila..." Lila contemplated skipping the message all together since listening to it was only making it harder for her to get dressed. She hopped on one foot as she attempted to listen to Tracy and get her jeans on at the same time. Tracy's soft voice continued, "I'm not sure why you aren't answering your phone. I hate to leave this message on your machine but I thought you should know that Chase hasn’t shown up to Calculus the last few days. I checked with Marsha and she said that he disappeared after you and him spoke in your office the other day. He hasn’t been back to school since.”
Lila froze in mid dress, her heart seizing. She and Chase had the confrontation in her office nearly three days ago.
The message continued as if Tracy were reading her mind. "And I know that kids ditch class all the time but...Chase never ditches. I just have this weird feeling, and with everything that’s been happening..." A long silence filled the air. "I don't know, Lila, but I just had to tell you. Okay... bye."
The message ended and Lila remained in a stony terrified silence. Tracy was right. Chase did a lot of things, but he never missed school. Sometimes he was late, but he never completely missed it, not ever.
A pounding on the door shook Lila to her core and made her scream out in horror.
Composing herself, she slowly made her way to the door. After checking the peephole she opened it to Jack's ghost white face.
“He’s gone,” he said, frantically, his eyes full of helplessness. "Grams hasn’t seen him in three days. He's not at the house, he's not at Lavo, he's not anywhere, Lila. He wasn't in class. Grams told me that he gave her his locket. The locket my mother gave him... you know how much he loves that necklace..."
Lila's mind raced. "That doesn't mean anything." She hardly believed her own words.
"What about what you said at Danielle's grave?"
She brought a shaking hand up to her mouth, then nodded in horror. “Okay, okay, calm down, Jack.” Lila reached out and touched his arm, cupping her fingers around his large bicep. His shoulders visibly relaxed at the contact and she held onto him as she grabbed a jacket from the hall closet. “Calm down. We’re going to find him, okay?”
Jack took a heaving breath and ran his hand through his hair as he backed up, making room for Lila to step out onto the porch and pull her door shut. He shook his head as she struggled to find the right key in her trembling fingers. “This is my fault.”
She turned to him and placed her hand on his chest. “Stop it,” she demanded.
Jack reached up and placed his hand over hers, gripping it as redness began to tinge his usually calm eyes.
Lila’s eyes grew wide in his. “Stop thinking the worst. He’s an eighteen year old, there are a million and one places he could be. We’re going to find him. Okay?”
Jack searched her face and, after a long silence, he nodded. A few moments passed before he suddenly cringed and looked away from her, biting his bottom lip.
Just watching the emotional roller coaster he was obviously on made Lila turn away. One of them had to stay calm and if she stood there watching Jack freak out for another second she knew would start freaking out, too. Finally, she found her key and locked the door, bounding down the steps after Jack who was already climbing into the driver’s seat of his truck.
---
Minutes quickly turned to hours as Jack and Lila scoured the city looking for Chase, each of them becoming more and more worried. It wasn't until a little after two o’clock in the morning that Lila had an epiphany.
"I know where he is,” she said, turning to Jack who was a mess in the driver's seat.
Jack's eyes met hers.
Twenty minutes later they were at Ashley's Manhattan estate, a sprawling building that took up an entire city block and overlooked Turtle Bay. Before he'd even stopped the car Jack could already see the dark outline of two bodies in the distance, sitting on the shore of the bay. All Chase had to do was turn his head, laughing at something the girl sitting next to him said, and Jack knew it was him. Relief washed over him as well as blind, red fury.
Jack leapt from the truck before it even came to a full stop, leaving the door hanging open and the ignition running. He scaled the small gate surrounding the house with ease and stalked over to Chase with purpose, his black trench coat flying in the wind behind him. When he was within a foot of his younger brother on the sand Jack saw red and reached out, grabbing Chase around the cuffs of his Dalton sweatshirt and pulling him to his feet until they were nose to nose. His nostrils flared with fury.
Ashley, who'd been sitting next to Chase and laughing a moment earlier, jumped to her feet, taking in Jack's enraged face in pure fear.
“Oh my god.” Lila whispered from the car, hurriedly grabbing the keys out of the ignition and jumping out of the passenger’s side. When she caught sight of Chase and Jack nose to nose, looking about two seconds from killing each other where they stood, she jumped the gate and broke into a run.
But she wasn't fast enough.
Jack shook Chase violently with the hold he had on the cuffs of his sweatshirt. “Have you lost your god damned mind, Chase? Where the hell have you been for the last three days? Where have you been?”
Chase’s face was red with fury, and he was gripping the cuffs of Jack’s jacket just as tightly, trying with all his might to push his brother away.
“Get the fuck off me!” He screamed.
“Where were you, huh?” Tears fell from Jacks eyes. “Taking more perverted pictures of me and Lila? Is that it? Planning your next insipid, juvenile prank? You and your little partner over here?” Jack turned to look at Ashley only to be met with the sight of the tiny blonde lunging at him, in the midst of jumping on his back. Jack released Chase and turned to Ashley just in time to step out of her way, only to be met with Chase’s strong arm wrapped around his neck from behind. His eyes widened in shock as his windpipe was completely blocked, stealing his breath. Chase tightened his grip.
“Stop,” Lila screamed, running up to the both of them and attempting to put herself in the middle, but there was no room for her. Jack and Chase were filled with too much anger, too much passion, too much unfinished business, that they didn’t even realize she was there. No room in this fight for a third. Even so, Lila stuck one arm between their bodies, wrapping a hand around Chase’s flexed arm, and the other around the front of Jack’s waist, trying with all of her might to pull them apart. “Stop, stop, stop,” she cried.
Somewhere in the scuffle the three of them fell to the ground and Lila ended up on top of Jack with Chase kneeling above them, in the midst of rearing back to punch Jack square in the face.
Chase froze in mid punch, with his fist in the air, when he realized Lila was sitting on top of his target with her palms out, fingers spread, begging for peace. He hadn’t realized he was in tears until that very frozen moment, and the wetness didn’t fall from his eyes until Ashley wrapped her thin arms around him from behind, attempting to pull him away while shooting daggers at Jack and Lila.
The sight of Lila protecting Jack was like a knife to the chest, like nothing Chase had ever experienced, and he was in such shock that he allowed Ashley to pull him back and away. Far away.
Lila was stunned, her wide eyes boring into Chase. “Chase, are you insane? What is happening to you?”
Once Ashley had Chase a comfortable distance away she came unglued, screaming at the top of her lungs from over Chase’s shoulder. “He’s insane? Fuck you!”
Lila reared back in shock, maintaining whatever small shred of sanity she had left only because she could feel Jack’s arm wrapped around her.
Ashley had come unglued. “
I think the school board would be very interested to know what you’ve been up to, not only with a student at the school but with his guardian, as well, you fucking bitch!” Ashley screamed. “You’d do well to know that my father is the god damn head of that very committee, so I suggest you back the hell off!”
Chase was now holding Ashley back, but his pain filled eyes bore into Lila and it took everything in him not to follow after when Lila stumbled to her feet and stared down at him. An agonizing moment of silence wafted between them until Lila took one, two, three steps back before turning completely away. She headed back to the car, not running, but with a walk filled with determination. Jack sat up with a hand wrapped around his burning throat, and took in Chase and Ashley, his eyes on fire. Chase looked like he had a lot of fight left for Jack and was ready whenever he was.
Breathing violently, Jack stumbled to his feet, and walked away.
---
Jack and Lila rode back to her apartment in silence. Once they arrived Jack parked and went to take his seatbelt off but when Lila spoke for the first time the entire ride he stopped cold.
She stared ahead as she spoke, eyes dead.
“I’ve caused this,” she said into the cool night air, quietly sobbing. She could feel Jack’s eyes boring into her from the driver’s seat but didn’t have the heart to look at him. “I can’t continue deluding myself into thinking that there’s any way I can help this situation between you and Chase. There’s nothing I can do. My being involved is only throwing more and more shit into the fire. I can stick around until it all burns to the ground or I can just get out now while you two still have a chance at a life together.”
“Lila--”
“It’s over.”
Jack’s eyes grew red and he looked out of the other window in disgust when he felt tears touching them. Just as soon as he was looking away from her, he was looking back.
“What about you, huh? Some sick fuck is after you. Taking pictures while you sleep? You really expect me to leave you alone at a time like this? I’m not going to abandon you, Lila. You can spew this bullshit at me all night but the truth is that Chase is unstable and you’re not safe. I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to you.”
Lila's Thunder: The Almeida Brothers, Book One Page 15
